This is a long one! I've been working on it for a few days. Since I've been on the Christian Nationalism kick for a little while now, and it's what's on my mind a lot, I've been thinking about the implications of Christians thinking that America is a "Christian Nation", how it affects Christians and how it affects atheists (in particular).

Quickly before I dive into that, I want to note something else I've been thinking about. (one paragraph, I promise). I've been thinking about what it means to be an unbalanced Christian, and whether or not that's necessarily synonymous with breaking the status quo. It seems to me that some of the most effective modern teachers, who really got a following, were thematically predictable. That doesn't necessarily mean they were unbalanced, (speaking especially with regard to Christian speakers), but just that they had a specific message that they wanted to make sure everyone heard. For example, there was that guy who made Salvation Mountain in California; his mountain has been declared a national treasure, and what a great work of art it is! I think that the Gospel absolutely must be a part of my message, but I wonder if thematically committing to a certain aspect of the gospel (like "repentance", or "salvation by faith", or "God is love", or "God is King") is something that would be beneficial as a choice that I could make in hopes of delivering a culturally impactful message.

Anyway! (see, it was just one paragraph....sort of) Here's the thought experiment I wanted to do. Just to be clear, I don't represent anyone but myself, but I'm going to do my best to put myself into other's shoes for the sake of argument.

I. How are Christians affected by themselves holding the belief that America is a Christian nation? I submit that, if America is presently a "Christian nation", then one of four things must be true about it:

1a. Its laws and leadership are currently Biblical.
2a. Its laws and leadership are currently in the process of being successfully and intentionally conformed to Biblical standards by the Christian majority in the country.
3a. Compromise is a Biblical act; there are so many gray areas in the Biblical definition of justice that we can't know what is right; or the Bible is impossible to interpret with clarity on issues relating to the American government.
4a. Reforming laws to make them more Biblical is impossible because the whole world is on the road to utter desolation. America is just as good as it gets.

About #4: my experience tells me that this is actually a very common perspective. It's ironic, though, because of America's history wherein it went from being totally without God to being the most legally presbyterian nation in the world around the years 1600-1900 after Christ. So, if 1600-1900 years after Christ, then why not 2000-2300 years after Christ? When did the world stop becoming more Christian, and how does that late change in direction fit in with any mainstream eschatological system? Anyway, America's history alone, I think, disproves a pessimistic premillenial view of history, and a more recent look at things demonstrates the unfortunate self-fulfilling nature of such views. If we think that America is doomed, then why would we put any effort into righting it?

So none of the above four things is true, but I submit that in order for a person to think that the United States is a "Christian nation", the person must believe at least one of them to be true. I think the behavioral manifestation of such a belief would be the following in order:

1b. The person who believes this will attempt to maintain the status quo no matter what.
2b. The person who believes this must really trust the people making the laws, but isn't making active comparisons between new laws and scripture. I just don't see it. Even when we elect a nominally Christian president, as soon as he's in office he seems to stop caring about stopping abominable things like the shedding of innocent blood (abortion) or the desecration of holy matrimony.
3b. This person is a jellyfish. As far as I can tell, there's no warrant for this kind of thinking in scripture.
4b. The person who believes this will be preparing for the end of freedom in America, and may make attempts to stop it. But from what I've seen, solutions offered as part of those attempts often take the form of not-directly-Biblical "moral" solutions or temporary bandages intended to postpone the inevitable destruction of their way of life. I hear a lot of these people saying, "Let's return to the constitution", and the constitution is a very fine document, but it isn't exactly the Bible, so the more I think about this, I increasingly view it as a kind of pandering to the idea that we need to establish a religiously neutral country.

OK, so conclusion for set "I" (this is by far the longest section): If the majority of Christian lawmakers fall into categories 1-4, then even if they are all in the same party (let's say republican because that seems to be the stereo-case), they will not be able to make any legal changes toward a more Biblical system, because none of the above groups is actually looking at scripture to decide what the laws should be. At best, group 4 is reflecting on scripture to decide how the laws should be.

II. On the other hand, how does it affect Christians if they do not believe that America is a Christian nation. I can think of three behavioral outcomes:

1a. Change America to make it a Christian nation.
2a. Leave
3a. Ignore it; we live in Rome, so let's pay taxes to Caesar.
4a. Hole up because we're doomed (analogous to I.4)

The above said, it's important to note that all groups of God-fearing Christians will spread the gospel, and so they all do their part to make America more Christian in the ultimately most effective way, by spreading the ideology. More on that later, maybe, but what I'm focusing on in this train of thought relates to my personal conviction that we should take our beliefs to their logical ends and then try to live consistently with those ends. If the ends are logically or physically impossible, then our beliefs probably are not aligned with reality. So, when I say "Change America to make it a Christian nation", I mean conform the laws to God's law.

Implications:
1b. This is what I'm proposing.
2b. Really not helpful for America, and I don't suppose anywhere else is necessarily better or worse than here in terms of the ability of the populace to recreate its government according to Scripture.
3b. Here's the jellyfish option.
4b. Basically the same comments as on I.4b

III. How does it affect atheists if Christians think that America is a Christian nation?

I couldn't think of good bullet points for this one, so just a paragraph: As long as Christians fall into categories I.1-4, we can bet that they won't get anything done, so basically an atheist in this position will just have to wait until the next antichrist gets elected and pick up where they left off.

Furthermore, a large concentration of politically unproductive Christians actually helps atheists to refine their views and strengthen their atheism by having solid disputes with Christians, but without fear that the Christian will succeed in making any actual changes to laws if they win the argument.

IV. How does it affect atheists if Christians don't think that America is a Christian nation?

1. If Americans fall into categories II.2-4, then atheists have nothing to worry about outside of the simple spread of the gospel.
2. Every American who falls into category II.1 is now a threat to every unBiblical argument, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. These Christians will make actual attempts at producing laws which are directly in line with scripture (a revolutionary goal, as the entire government will have to be reshaped eventually).

V. Now, just for fun, what about atheists who think that America is a Christian nation? (these are more-or-less the same for atheists who don't think so). I see two options:

1. Be happy about it. So far, the "Christian country U.S.A." has functioned rather equitably.
2. Be unhappy about it. Many atheists (and I say "many" in order to be careful, but I've never met an atheist who didn't) suppose that we should make it our goal to be unbiased in every consideration. The V2 group therefore seems to think that if we pretend to have unbiased views when we consider things like morality, justice and law, we will somehow end up with a majority advocating the best possible solution for any problem, in the Darwinian sense. (That is, the best thing for the species. might makes right, and the populace is god, etc). These atheists say that we should have a national government free from individuals with any tendency toward religious consideration when making laws at all, so they will actively try to limit the people holding office to being either atheists or jellyfish.

Alright, that's it. What was the point?

Honestly, the way I see it, atheists would help their cause by doing their best to maintain the illusion that America is a Christian nation. No tricks or lies here -- I'm a Christian, and so help me God I'm writing what I really think is the truth.

And Christians, stop lying to yourselves! America will be a Christian nation when its Law is the scripture. As an illustration of the differences, how many pages of federal tax code alone are there? Imagine if someone had to do a public reading of it with explanations. How long would it take? People spend 8 years in school getting degrees on tiny facets of the law because no common man could ever read through the entire thing. But Biblical leaders like Josiah (2 Kings 23) and Ezra (Nehemiah 8) read the law to the people and they understood. Who in the world could read American law to Americans, much less have them understand it? I only say this as a broad-brushing way to contrast Biblical law with American law. Americans, the U.S.A is not a "Christian nation", but it is not beyond hope. Let's advocate Biblical standards of justice in our land!

"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?...He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 'As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.'"